The Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) has asked Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to postpone the decision to inspect value added tax (VAT) refunds to exporters of agricultural products.

The association's press service reported that according to information announced at a government meeting this could concern the list of 20 largest grain exporters.

"We believe that the decision is ill-timed. The largest exporters of Ukrainian grain are companies from the United States, China, France, Germany, Austria, Japan, South Korea and some famous Ukrainian companies. Do we inspect them again? Is this the method to support Ukrainian exporters? Are these efforts to create investment climate in Ukraine? We think that it is not," the press service said, citing the association's address to the prime minister.

UGA said that the start of inspections actually blocks VAT refunding for months and in some cases for years.

"This would result in the decline of grain prices, which are not high at all. Harvesting has only started," the association said.

The association pointed out unequal conditions for VAT refunds due to keeping two registers. The State Fiscal Service's website contains information about sums companies claimed for refunding, but there is no information about actual refunding under the claims. This system makes impossible to control VAT refunds to exporters by the public and business and it affects the investment climate in the country.

"According to our opinion, the provision of equal approaches to inspections of exporters and VAT refunding is very important in settling the issue raised by the government, irrespective of the size of the declared budget refunding and the type of exported goods," UGA said.